At The Break Of Dawn
by A Dreaming Songbird
Summary: Through the years, Jade Harley has always had some constants in her turbulent world. Sometimes, things just go wrong, but at least there's always someone there to pick up the pieces. And as everything she knows cascades into chaos, at least she knows that they'll all be together. A DaveJade story written for Snowy the Sane Fangirl, with mentions of JohnRose. AU.


_AN: This story is dedicated to Snowy the Sane Fangirl and is set in the AU of my larger ongoing work, _Darkness and Dreams_. There are slight spoilers for that, but nothing major and nothing that anyone who's up to date on it hasn't already seen. This piece should be able to mostly stand alone, if one approaches it with the knowledge that it's set in a vaguely steampunk-inspired AU where the Condensce rules the planet completely, and while technology has advanced magic is very much a real thing. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!_

* * *

_One_.

* * *

When they left the island for the final time, Jade sniffled and clutched John's hand tightly and stared out the window until long after their little green paradise home was too far to be seen, lost in the inky blackness of the ocean under the distant stars. The water was dark and deep and scary, she didn't know what was going on but she did know enough to know that they were never going back, and she couldn't go to Nanna or Grandpa because they were talking about Adult Things, serious business and something that made Nanna cry when she thought Jade wasn't looking.

"John?" she asked, looking over at her brother with wide, tearful eyes. "What's happening? I'm scared."

"I don't know," he said seriously, pushing his big square glasses up his nose and squeezing her hand comfortingly. He was a bit taller than her, with a wild mop of unruly black hair that stuck out in all directions, and his face was almost entirely in shadow as they both looked out across the black, black waters. "But don't be scared, Nanna and Grampa are with us, and I'm with you! We'll be okay."

The wind picked up, blowing cool spray over both children, and Jade quickly hid her face in John's shoulder to avoid the salty droplets. "I want to go home."

"We will soon," he promised.

"But we won't!" she exclaimed. "Didn't you hear Nanna and Grampa? We're never going back home!"

"They—they said we were going to a new home," John fumbled for words, seeming to have not really thought that that meant they were never going to the island again.

"It won't be home," Jade shook her head furiously. "I want to go back. Why do we have to leave?"

"John? Jade?" Nanna's anxious voice called from the warmly lit cabin that they had for themselves on this stupid big ship that was taking them across the stupid ocean to a stupid new city full of stupid people. Jade just wanted to go back _home_!

"We're here!" John piped up. "Come on, Jade, let's go inside."

Jade's resistance was only token; she dragged her feet and stared off into the distance in the direction of the wake of their boat, following the trail mournfully. "I want to go home," she repeated, turning her face up to Nanna plaintively.

"Oh, children," Nanna sighed, and pulled them both into a hug. "Poor darlings..."

"I want to go home, Nanna," Jade whined into her arms. "Why are we leaving?"

"Shh, don't cry," the older woman instructed. "It'll be alright. We're moving to a big city! It'll be exciting, you'll make new friends!"

"I don't want to go to a stupid big city," Jade said obstinately. Why couldn't Nanna just understand? It was stupid, why did they have to leave? Why couldn't Nanna and Grampa have at least _asked _her and John if they wanted to go to a big city before packing up and moving? "I want to go _home_."

Nanna sighed wearily. Jade guessed that she was getting annoyed by her whining, and quietly settled into a sad sulk for the rest of the night. John tried in vain to cheer her up, but all that culminated in was a confused and guilty looking boy when she finally burst into tears as he read from a silly joke book that used to sit on the shelf above his bed, next to the potted strawberry plant she'd grown for his birthday once so that he could have snacks in his room.

When the ship arrived in three days, the noise and bustle of the capital city frankly terrified Jade, who had lived in seclusion on the island her whole life. John seemed to regard it as a grand adventure, and she really wished she could be as happy as he was to be there, but she could only look east and think of the ocean that lay between her and her true home.

And in a few days, the icing finally was piped onto the cake. School was another obstacle that she didn't know how to deal with. There were so many other kids all crammed into one place, how did it even work? It was intimidating, especially because thanks to some awful randomized sorting procedure John wasn't in her class, which made her a bit leery of interacting with everyone even though the prospect of making all these new friends was fun in theory. But in practice, Jade found herself sitting alone on the swingset at playtime, wondering whether she could see the island across the ocean if she could just swing high enough.

Technically, she _could_ have gone back over the sea to it, but just her, no Nanna, John, or Grampa. It was hard though and besides, Grampa, who specialized in the magic of Hope, had taken her aside and sternly told her that she should _never _do it, especially long distances and without supervision, and she should never, ever, _ever _tell anyone that she could. Jade had trembled and nodded her agreement, not understanding how serious it was at the time but knowing that Grampa really, truly meant every last word that he had said.

It was one grey, depressingly overcast day when she was idly swinging back and forth, no real energy in her movements, when another student who had no real friends in the class approached her.

"You're the new kid, right? You look lonely," he observed, taking a seat on the swing next to her.

"That's because I _am_ lonely," she blurted as she turned her head up to look at him. He was white-blonde, his hair sort of messy and windswept though it looked really soft, he was dressed in a red jacket and dark pants, and for some reason he was wearing dark, reflective sunglasses. Perhaps something was wrong with his vision and he had to wear them, even on cloudy days? But even so, from what she could see of his face, he looked nice.

He smiled just barely, the tiniest flicker of happiness appearing on his face as he stuck out his hand in greeting. "My name's Dave."

* * *

_Two_.

* * *

As it turned out, Dave's last name was Strider and he had a cousin named Rose and an older brother that he always just referred to as "Bro". Rose lived with her mother and Dave lived with his brother, both of them near the new house—Jade refused to call it home—that the Harley-Egbert family had moved into. Rose was also in John's class, which Jade found funny.

She told Dave about how she had a brother too, one year older than she was even though they were in the same grade because she'd skipped one, and they didn't know their parents but they lived with their grandparents on an island until just a few weeks ago, when they moved here to the Imperial City. She told him that her brother John was a huge dork and liked to fiddle around with computers, while she was more interested in science.

They became lunch buddies and playtime buddies and naptime buddies and just buddies in general, always found as a matching unit—just the two of them,because one day Dave confided in her that he hadn't always worn his silly glasses to school, but most people in their class had been freaked out by his eyes—which he refused to show her, though he did assure her that they were super cool—and now they didn't like him.

"That's a stupid reason not to like someone," Jade said as they sat outside for a picnic lunch, packed by Nanna. "I bet your eyes are super _super_ cool, not just super cool. Maybe they just couldn't handle the coolness!"

"You got that right, Harley," he grinned, leaning against the tree whose shade they were sitting under. "I'm so cool that they're all just too jealous to handle my icy hotness."

"Icy hotness?" she questioned with a laugh. "That doesn't make sense, Dave! Here, have a sandwich. Nanna made them!"

"I dunno," he shrugged as he accepted the plate and took a swig of his bottle of apple juice. "My bro says it all the time. I think it means that he's rad and cool. Like me."

"That's weird," Jade said. "But not in a bad way."

"_You're_ weird," he replied coolly. "But not in a bad way, either."

"Thanks, Dave," she giggled wryly. "You're silly."

The next year passed strangely fast for what Jade would have expected. She'd really been thinking that every day living in this strange big city would be weird and unlikeable and would drag on and on and on until a week felt like a _month_! But somehow, it was already winter again and she and John and Rose and Dave were all a year older and suddenly, she came to realize that while her heart was still on her island, it was starting to accept this city, even though it was big and bustling and kind of scary sometimes, as home too.

A little while later, time had continued rolling by and the four of them entered the all-important fifth year of grade school. Thankfully, the classes didn't get swapped around—there was some kind of school policy that said from third, fourth, and fifth grades, everyone kept the same classmates and just had different teachers. This was a good thing, because Jade liked having her class with Dave in it! He was her good friend.

One day in late fall as they sat outside for recess and watched the last of the crimson leaves flutter down from the bare trees, she shivered in her warm knitted sweater and confessed that this was the coldest weather she'd ever seen. On the island, where she'd spent most of last winter before they moved—right when everything in the city was turning to slush rather than solid ice—the weather was much warmer and there was no snow, ever!

"Does it really snow here, Dave?" she asked excitedly. "I've read about snow but I've never actually seen it!"

Dave stared at her disbelievingly. "You're telling me that you're eight years old and you have never built a _snowman_?"

Jade blinked. "A snowman?"

"That has got to be one of the saddest things I have ever heard in my whole life," Dave shook his head. "As soon as it starts snowing, we're going to go out and build snowmen and snow forts and then I'll teach you to make snowballs and we are going to annih—annihilate John and Rose in a snowball fight." Of course, the stumble over the long word was on purpose, for ironic reasons. Definitely not at all because it was just a really big word.

"But I don't want to annlihate—anihil—whatever! That word!—I don't want to do that to Rose and John, I like them, Dave!" she protested, unashamedly fumbling and then giving up on the strange pronunciation.

"They'll get over it," he shrugged with a grin. "The only thing that sucks about winter around here is that my bro can't make hot chocolate to save his life. But he's still awesome," he added quickly, in case there had ever been any doubt about that fact.

Jade giggled. "I know, your bro is pretty awesome, but I don't think he's the awesomest guy around."

Dave opened his mouth to protest, indignant, when she nudged him playfully.

"Don't make that face at me! I was talking about you, silly!" she said brightly before she unexpectedly hugged him, which at least saved the poor boy from having her see how bright he blushed.

"Uh... oh. Right. I see."

Jade giggled, beaming so radiantly that she didn't even notice the silly titters and hoots from some of their nearby classmates. "And I mean it, too!"

Thankfully for Dave, the end of recess break signified his escape from that conversation before his face could get any closer to the color of a cherry. By the time they finished their classwork indoors, Jade seemed to have completely forgotten that conversation, or at least discarded any significance it might have had; Dave gratefully steered all discussion away from that as best as he could. It was extremely easy, probably because Jade didn't seem to have any idea that he didn't want to talk about it.

But the idea that she thought he was the awesomest guy she knew stuck in his head for an uncomfortably long time afterwards.

* * *

_Three_.

* * *

In the eighth year of school, Jade was beginning to have a problem. A big one. But she didn't know how to approach anyone about it, and keeping it a secret was starting to tear her apart just a little bit, because it was constantly on her mind and Rose and Dave had most likely started to suspect that she was hiding something.

The problem was that her magic was growing as she grew and it was getting harder to control. She needed schooling in it, but for Space and Time there was only one academy and that was run by the Empress. Nanna and Grampa were both more than adamant against her ever going there, or telling anyone that she had Space. The Empress gave Space and Time mages a place in her service, and everyone who graduated from the academy accepted it! And it was really easy to get in, if they knew that you were a Space or Time mage they came and recruited you happily, Jade had heard.

It wasn't until recently that she'd put it together after a long talk with Nanna. No one accepted the position in the Empress's forces, they had no choice. And the "recruiting" from the academy was just about as much of a choice—in other words, not a choice at all.

Suddenly, Jade was terrified of her powers. She didn't want them, she just wanted to live with John and Grampa and Nanna forever! John had Breath and he attended the Breath club at school with a few others; it was a pretty laid-back thing that just let them all get together and talk and practice using Breath. Why couldn't Space have that?

"Jade," Rose broke into her thoughts. It was lunch break and the four of them were sitting in their usual spot in the courtyard of the school, enjoying the sunny spring day. "What's wrong? Is something troubling you?"

Jade bit her lip anxiously, looking at the three others sitting around her. "John," she said suddenly, standing and taking his hand. "I need to talk to you."

"Sure," he said with a carefree shrug, though as he followed her a few meters away it was obvious from his tone and posture that he was concerned. "What's up?"

She stopped when she was fairly certain that they were out of Rose and Dave's earshot and dropped her voice as low as possible. "John, it keeps coming up and I can't control it and I'm so scared that I'm going to accidentally just do _something _Spacey without meaning to and then they'll come take me away—"

"Shush," John interrupted, and disregarding that Rose and Dave were probably looking over to them curiously he hugged her comfortingly. "You'll be okay! We'll go talk to Nanna and Grampa again tonight and we can look for a discreet mentor for you, and you'll be okay, I promise!"

"It won't stop," she despaired, burying her face in his shoulder. "I can _feel _it just being ready to come out and I don't want it, John, I don't want to have it if I have to hate it my whole life!"

"Shhh," he said again, rubbing her back. "We'll take care of you. You can do it, I know you can!"

Jade didn't think she could, to be honest; with every passing day it grew harder to completely hold in the tendrils of Space magic that just wanted to come out and manipulate their domain, which was something she had been able to do when she was little and they lived on the island because no one would see, and it felt good to stretch her metaphorical wings a little, and she _wanted _to but she was so frightened to do it at the same time! The Empress wasn't a good ruler for terrifying her citizens and making them feel this way, she thought.

"You okay?" John asked quietly. "Can we go back and finish lunch?"

She nodded wordlessly, clasping his hand tightly as he pulled away and ruffled her hair. They walked back to the wisteria tree that grew above the bench where Rose sat, and John perched next to her. Jade sat on the grass next to Dave, and they resumed their meal.

"Everything alright?" Rose inquired, tilting her head slightly in curiosity and concern.

"Yeah, it's just some stuff going on at home," John said with a dismissive shake of his head. "It'll be okay pretty soon."

"Yeah," Jade agreed, forcing a smile. "I guess I just worry too much!"

Dave just cast her a strange look that she couldn't make sense of, exchanging glances with Rose, and said nothing.

Later, after school a few days later, Jade was behind the school in one of the secluded lots that the garden club was planning to fill with flowers. She'd already planted a few, and was kneeling in the dirt and pruning them when an outlet for her bubbling magic presented itself. With a thrill of something between fear and exhilaration running through her at the thought of her idea, she carefully looked around herself in all directions, and confirmed that no one was there before turning back to the flower beds.

A few flowers lay on the ground, having fallen from the plants in the rains a day ago. Jade lifted one of them with trembling fingers and held it in her palm, angling her body so that her hands would be invisible from the school building, and slowly began to let it levitate in above her palm. It was a basic, small and rudimentary use of Space magic, but it let the simmering power that had been held in for years come out to a degree and stop pushing and probing at her because she didn't know how to channel it.

A bright smile began to spread across her face as she watched the little flower dance in her hands, glowing very faintly with a bright green light that she knew to be the mark of her own power. It was working, she could feel the magic within herself calming down. Nanna and Grampa would be furious if they knew she was using it, but maybe if she just came out here once or twice a month and played with flowers when no one was around she could keep it under control—

"You never told me you had magic," a voice said accusingly from behind her. Jade gasped and dropped the flower to the dirt, whirling around as the blood drained from her face in horror. Oh no, what had she _done_—

It was Dave, standing with his arms crossed as he looked down at her.

"I—oh—what—when did you get here? You weren't there a second ago," she hedged, looking up at him and trying not to appear too nervous from her position kneeling in the soil.

"No, I wasn't," he replied cryptically, still frowning with an almost cold, blank expression. "And you never told me you had magic."

Jade felt her heart pounding hard in her chest, tears of fright and dread pricking at her eyes even though she was infinitely relieved that it was Dave who'd seen her rather than someone else who might immediately turn her in. Maybe she could reason with him, he was her friend, right?

"I don't see why you were making such a big deal and _lying_ about it. You told me you didn't have any," he continued icily. "It was really fucking obvious that you were hiding something from me and Rose. Is this it? That was what, Breath? Just making flowers float? Why couldn't you have just told us? I thought _friends _don't keep secrets from one another." The final sentence was acidic and pointed; Jade winced. He really felt betrayed, didn't he?

"It wasn't Breath," she said shakily, feeling more and more hollow and scared but determined to see this through and make him understand why she had hidden it as she took a deep breath. "And the reason I didn't tell you is... it was Space." She hung her head, blinking back tears. "I'm sorry."

His entire demeanor changed completely, his folded arms dropping to his sides and his stony expression morphing to one of surprise and ... understanding? "Oh," he said.

"Please don't tell anyone," she begged, trembling.

"There is no way I am telling anyone," he promised, dropping to his knees in front of her so that he could take her hands. "And while we're out here sharing secrets... You know how I wasn't here a second ago? That was kind of literal. I'm Time."

"Oh," she said, surprised and suddenly feeling a bond with him that went even deeper than being childhood best friends. "Dave..."

When a worried Nanna came by the school to see why Jade was taking so long to prune some plants, she found them both kneeling in the flower beds and holding each other as if their lives depended on it.

* * *

_Four_.

* * *

Two years later, they were in the penultimate year of school. After the eleventh year, they would go into studies at university, if they so pleased, or in the field, for a year, and then pick a track to pursue for the next five. It was a bit of a scary process, but Jade was pretty sure she knew what she was going to do. Science was her ultimate calling, and she enjoyed it a lot! Plus, studying the natural world was a Spacey thing to do. With Rose's help, she'd gotten her hands on some old books on the arts of Space—probably illegally obtained, but it didn't matter—and started figuring out how to use her power and more importantly how to control it, which made her very happy.

The winter was almost here and it was quite nippy, as usual. Jade still loved seeing the first snows of each year, watching the little white flakes flutter down from the sky full of stars. It was late evening and she had was wearing a bright green scarf wound around her neck and a matching hat with a cute little pair of dog ears knitted atop her head—both gifts from Rose for her birthday the past year—as she walked out of the house.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Nanna, Grampa!" she called with a grin and a wave that was slightly awkward because she was holding a mug of hot chocolate in each hand and had a bag slung over one shoulder, and then briskly walked to the corner of the street and climbed into the waiting vehicle that was there. Rose sat behind the wheel of the nice toasty car, greeting Jade warmly.

"Nanna sent this for you," Jade said, passing the other girl one of the two mugs. Rose accepted it eagerly and sipped the steaming liquid carefully, her face lighting up. Over the years, Nanna Egbert's hot chocolate had become legendary among the group, just like everything else she cooked. Jade's grandmother was a culinary genius, what could she say?

"Tell her that she has my thanks," Rose smiled, keeping one hand on the steering wheel as she finished the drink and started to drive back to her hourse.

Jade grinned. "Will do!" she said and settled more comfortably into her seat, removing the green hat from her head and haphazardly running her fingers through her thick hair in a halfhearted effort to calm the messy locks. She was excited, because tonight she was spending the night at Rose's place for the other girl's birthday tomorrow! John and Dave would both show up in the morning, probably, but this was a girls' night only. And it was going to be fun! Rose was her best friend—well, so was Dave, but he was different.

Okay, yeah, so she hadn't told anyone—not even John—but Jade was pretty sure she had feelings for Dave, the kind that the trolls called "flushed" or "red". As in, the romantic kind. She had already admitted it to herself, after a long phase of denial, but no one else knew. Dave himself seemed to kind of be more affectionate with her than anyone else, but that might just be Dave being Dave, and not mean anything. Ugh, boys were so confusing!

Oh shit, she said that last part out loud, didn't she?

Yeah, judging by the way Rose was looking at her with amusement and a raised eyebrow, she definitely had, and Rose had heard it. There was a moment in which Jade just stared at her friend as the lights went by and they drew closer to Rose's house, and then the silence was broken.

"Well," the blonde said cheekily, "I guess we won't run out of topics to pick apart in the dead of night."

"Oh no you don't!" Jade blushed and playfully smacked her friend's shoulder lightly. "Shush, you!"

Rose laughed merrily. "I shall do no such thing!" She cast Jade a Look, with a capital L, and winked suggestively. "Though a little of the fun is removed because I am fairly sure I already know who the boy in question is."

"Rose!" Jade laughed, feeling her cheeks turn even redder. "We are so _not _talking about this right now!"

"Right, right," Rose smirked as she turned into the driveway of her house. "I'll save it for the dead of night."

"_Rose!_"

They exited the car, Jade quickly tugging her hat back on in the cold wintery air before she grabbed her bag of overnight supplies, and hand in hand they walked down the path to the door. As they entered, Rose's mother was sitting on the couch and stroking the dark fur of one of their several cats; she raised a hand and waved.

"Hi there, Jade! I know you probably already ate, but I stuffed the fridge with all sorts of awesome goodies," she laughed. "I just know you girls are going to be up _all _night! Have fun, you two."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Alright, Mom," she sighed, tugging Jade through the house and up the stairs to her room, where she let herself collapse on the bed with a groan. "I swear, that woman can be infuriating."

Jade blinked. "You always say that, but she's always so nice every time I come over."

"She's just waiting to see whether we actually indulge in whatever she put in the refrigerator," Rose replied, staring at the ceiling.

"I will never understand you two," Jade laughed and flopped onto the bed, resting her head on the other girl's stomach. "Oh, nice! I see you put up those stars I gave you at the fall festival." On the ceiling there were a multitude of shining stars, some of which glowed in the dark while others emitted colored lights. Jade had worked with Grampa to make them just for Rose, who had once complained that her room was tastefully decorated but lacked _flair_.

"Yes, I did. They add quite a nice touch in here at night," Rose replied.

"I know, I have a matching set in my room!" Jade giggled. "And I made some for Nanna and Grampa, too. John has a wind chime instead, because he's a dork."

"A dork, indeed," said Rose, a smile in her voice. "But a genuine one, at least."

Jade suddenly rolled over and propped herself up on one arm, staring down at her friend with wide eyes as her hair fell everywhere. "Oh, now, Rose! Do you like John? Like, _like _like John? Pfft, I just used the word like three times in a row," she laughed. "But answer the question!" This was great! If Rose thought she could make Jade squirm without any retribution, well, here was _that _idea getting overturned.

A faint rosy hue dusted Rose's cheeks as she pushed Jade's hair away from her mouth before speaking. "I have no idea what gave you that idea."

"You didn't say no," Jade crowed. "You like my brother, don't you?"

"I am going to remain silent on this matter, lest I say anything that can be used against me," Rose said with a prim smile, but her pale skin worked against her as the pink color that darkened her cheeks deepened.

"You like John," Jade giggled.

"Don't you dare tell him anything of the sort," Rose warned, gently pushing Jade to the side so that she could sit up.

"You're not denying anything!" Jade sang, still grinning widely.

"So, Jade, how's everything that you do that does not pertain to scrutiny of my love life been going recently?" Rose asked, blatantly changing the subject, but Jade didn't mind—her point had been made.

Actually, there was something that she was planning to tell Rose, on a more serious note, now that she thought about it. "You know... I found something out recently," she said. "About why John, Nanna, Grampa, and I all even left our island."

"Oh?" Rose asked, looking slightly concerned.

"It's because of the Empress," Jade sighed. "Apparently she thought it was suspicious that any of her citizens would choose to live so far away on an island, where we could see messengers coming from miles away. She thought we were hiding something from her and forced us to move." And it wasn't like she was wrong; Jade was a Space mage, and they were still hiding that. At least the School of Breath, which was John's, wasn't that rare in the population, so he had safety in numbers to ensure his anonymity. He did seem to be a lot stronger than most of his fellows, but hopefully he would be smart enough not to stick his neck out.

"I see," Rose said. "That is... somewhat concerning, I must confess. Do you think she knows about you?"

"No, I doubt it," Jade shook her head. "I mean, I'm right here, not somewhere else, so she probably doesn't, don't you think?"

"True," the other girl nodded, conceding the point. "I just do find it a little bit troubling that you're already on her radar. Just be careful, alright?"

"Of course! You know me, I'm always careful!" Jade grinned reassuringly, giving Rose a thumbs-up.

"Of course," Rose agreed dryly. "And you know I'm always here if you need me."

"Same goes for you," Jade beamed and hugged her. "Also, um... so I don't know what the significance of the snacks in the fridge is, but I'm kind of hungry, so can I eat them?"

Rose laughed. "Yes, I _suppose_ we can go eat them."

Hours passed with games, chatter, and Rose's suggestion to color their hair—temporarily, of course, but it was still fun. Jade looked at her reflection with the streaks of bright green and blue and giggled; Rose, who had striking dashes of bright purple and black clashing with the pale blonde of her hair, smiled back.

"We look fabulous," Jade laughed, nudging the taller girl.

"We look better than fabulous," Rose replied with a grin.

In the late hours of the night, when they were lying in Rose's large bed with soft music playing from the stereo system on the nightstand and watching Jade's stars glitter on the ceiling, Rose rolled over in the moonlight and poked Jade.

"So," she said with a misleadingly innocent smile. "About how confusing boys are."

"Oh noooo, I thought you'd forgotten about that," Jade moaned, feeling her face heat even in the dim moonlight and the glimmer of her starlights.

"Do you really think I would forget about something like that?" Rose laughed. "So, go on then, spill the beans."

"Ughhh, Rose," the younger girl whined. "You already know, I bet!"

"Well, if you mean to say that the boy you happen to like is my cousin, then yes, I do know," she said matter-of-factly.

"Well then what else am I supposed to say?" Jade asked. "That I think he's really sweet and funny and is very warm whenever you hug him and he's not exactly hard on the eyes either and oh shit what am I saying?" She sank into the pillow and pulled the blankets up to her eyes, blushing furiously.

Rose laughed heartily, seeming to find this entire thing even funnier than it was. "Okay, okay, I am thoroughly convinced that you are head over heels for Dave," she said. Jade pulled the blankets the rest of the way over her head.

"Please tell me you're not going to dissect that any further," she said, voice muffled.

"Oh, very well, I won't," Rose grinned. "Out loud, at least."

"And don't you dare tell him!" she insisted, still under the blankets. "Or else I'll tell John."

"Consider me well briefed on the matter. He'll never know."

"Good," Jade said, peeping out from under the blanket to breathe more easily. "Oh, I didn't even notice! It's three in the morning. Happy birthday, Rose!"

Rose smiled brightly. "Thank you."

"Now we should probably go to sleep," Jade giggled. "Good night, love you Rose!"

"Good night, Jade. I love you too."

* * *

_Five_.

* * *

Some days, Jade felt like she was on top of the world. Right now, it was one of those days, and she couldn't be happier! Even though she was walking home alone instead of with John, because he was staying at school a little longer to work on some midterm project with Rose, she was very pleased with herself. Not only did she feel like she looked quite pretty in her new dress, but also her exam in physics had been handed back today and she'd made the highest score in the class! And Nanna had promised to make some special treats by the time they got home from school in honor of Grampa's birthday. It was going to be a good day, even if the smell of smoke in the air—strange, was someone having a cookout or something?—was making her wrinkle her nose. It kind of did stink a lot. Probably someone was trying to have a cookout in the neighborhood but they were _burning _their meat instead of just cooking it. She was a little surprised Nanna hadn't immediately flown across to whoever's house and given them instructions!

Laughing it off, Jade kept walking, a spring in her step as she rounded the first corner on the way back home. Her plans for tonight included decorating the house with John so that they could throw Grampa a party when he got home; they had collaborated with everyone's families for a while and finally Rose's mom had agreed to pull some strings and come over in a little while so that she could take him out on the town to go to the best rifle shops or something. Apparently she also liked rifles, which Jade never would have pinned her down for, but hey, it was cool.

The acrid smell of smoke and burning kept getting stronger the closer she got to home. Really, she was very surprised Nanna wasn't angrily teaching someone how to cook before letting it get this bad! It had to be a really, really badly burnt cookout, Jade thought to herself as she happily did a little pirouette on the sidewalk. Her house was just on the next street, around the corner. She turned said corner...

...and stopped dead, feeling her heart drop like a stone.

The house was on fire, roaring tongues of flame licking at the sky hungrily and sending up gouts of black smoke. Orange waves of heat rolled over her from where she stood; even the tree in the front yard was burning. The entire structure was aflame, and as she watched the second floor began to cave in, collapsing with a great crash of thunder. It was that that broke the spell that froze her in place, and Jade began to run toward the house heedlessly as sparks flew past her.

"_Nanna! Grampa!_" she screamed, coughing from the density of the smoke. It was hot, too hot already, but she carelessly dropped her schoolbag on the sidewalk and cringing, ran closer to the house, reeling back from the intense heat. "_Nanna! Grampa! Please, please, where are you_?" They had to be alive, they had to be alright, they were just around here somewhere, where oh where oh were were they—

The sight of a charred body through the kitchen window was enough to make her scream and run several yards away from the house before her knees gave way and she collapsed, feeling her stomach lurch unpleasantly. "No, no, no, no, _Nanna please no,_" she sobbed, scrubbing at her watering eyes. Her pretty new dress was covered in soot and singed from the bits of flame that had caught on the grass—why were none of the neighbors helping? Why was no one there? How could they just have let this happen?

Nanna, Grampa, no no no they had to be alive, she had imagined that—that body in the window, it wasn't Nanna it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't! Grampa might not have been in the house either! This was all a dream, a bad dream, it wasn't real! It couldn't be, no no no!

John. She had to call John. He would tell her everything was okay and everything would be okay. Her schoolbag was over there, on the sidewalk; she crawled towards it, coughing from the smoke, and dialed his number.

It rang, and rang, and rang... and he never picked up the call.

Jade screamed again, looking at the house, at her bag, and back to the house. "_Nanna! Grampa!_" she shrieked once more, the only answer the crackle of the hungry flames that had just taken _everything _from her except her brother and her best friends but John wasn't answering her and she couldn't stay here!

Stumbling, Jade pushed herself to her feet, and cast one final, tearful look at the place that had become as dear to her as her island. Then she began to run, half-blinded by tears, to the nearest place that she could call home.

When Dave opened the door, he took a step back in shock before he swept her into his arms without a word and kicked the door shut. She knew she looked like a mess, covered in soot and her face streaked with tears, and coughing still because she smelled like smoke, and she was going to get soot and tears and the smell of smoke all over him too, but she just clung to him and breathed in the scent of his shirt that was decidedly not smoke, and started to sob all over again.

"Jade... what the hell happened? Are you okay?" he asked, all but carrying her to the couch and using his leg to clear enough space to sit, pulling her into his lap.

"No," she gasped, the image of the burned body—that was the burned flesh she had been smelling, oh no oh no oh no—running through her mind all over again. "No, no, no I'm not, oh god—Dave—" she broke into fresh tears. "And John—he won't answer oh god I need him to answer—"

"Jade," Dave interrupted gently, touching her cheek to force her to look him in the eye as he gently slid her smudged glasses from her face, not even wearing his own black shades. (He'd retired those around her and John a few years ago, but that was another story, a happy one and oh god no she felt as far from happy as she'd ever been) "What happened?"

"House on fire," she shuddered, clinging to him and hoping that this was a bad dream, a bad dream please let it be a bad dream. "Nanna—Nanna and Grampa—oh god Dave they were inside oh god—" she broke off, coughing and crying.

His face went from pale to ashen. "Are you sure? Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

"I—I saw—in the kitchen—oh god, oh, I saw Nanna—" she sobbed. Dave's eyes widened, and the next thing she knew he was all but wrapped around her, humming something soothing softly.

He was silent for a few minutes. "Oh god, Jade, I'm so sorry... shit, fuck, this is bad, fuck..." he finally said, and there was a catch in his voice like he was about to cry too. "I'll call Rose and she'll get John to answer his communicator, okay? And you can stay here, or with Rose if you want, and..."

No, no no, he was making plans for the future but she was still stuck on the present, Nanna and Grampa were dead dead dead how could they be dead? "Dave, please," she whimpered, hoping he'd understand what she had no words to say.

Miraculously, he did. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jade, I'm so sorry. I'll just sit here, and you tell me what I can do for you, and no, I'm not letting go of you anytime soon." That came as a great comfort to her, because she wanted a physical reassurance that at least he was here, and she just really wanted to be held and even if he wasn't Grampa or Nanna he was someone she loved and she had to cling even tighter to him now that she couldn't—she couldn't hug Nanna or Grampa anymore and oh no she would never be able to stop crying, never never never!

After a few minutes, he shifted, though he didn't loosen his arms around her, and called sharply, "Bro!"

The other Strider's voice drifted down from his room. "What, kid?"

"Get your ass in here!" Dave demanded. "It's serious."

There was a moment, and then footsteps lightly descended the stairs until Bro stood in the living room entryway. "What the hell—oh, hey, Harley. What's up? ...hey, are you crying? Dave, what the fuck did you do—"

"He didn't do anything," Jade sniffled, raising her head slightly from Dave's shoulder before she began to cry harder again.

Bro was frowning now. "Alright, kid, now explain."

Dave sighed, stroking Jade's hair. He swallowed hard before meeting his brother's gaze. "Her house... her house burned down. And Nanna Egbert and Granddad Harls were inside."

Just like Dave's had, Bro's face went white in shock. "_What?_"

"Can someone please call John," Jade pleaded, taking one hand from Dave's shoulder to wipe her eyes. "I need John."

Bro nodded swiftly. "Yeah, just a second, kiddo," he said, and vanished from the room. He returned with a communicator in hand, already talking into it.

"Hey, Rose. No, stop, stop, I mean it—I don't need to know whatever you're working on or how long it'll take, I need Egbert on the line right now. Yes, right now—thank you. Hey, kid. I have bad news for you. Well, actually, your sister—whoa, whoa, calm down, she's right here, she's okay! Here, she wants to talk to you." He cast the device a pitying look and passed it to Jade.

"J—John?" Jade asked, trying to control her voice's trembling.

"Hey, Jade," he said anxiously. She nearly broke down in relief from the sound of his voice. "What happened? Bro said something's wrong."

"Oh god, John," she said, feeling a sob rising in her throat. Dave squeezed her comfortingly. "I—I can't—oh god, John, our house was on fire, and—and Nanna and Grampa—" she broke off, unable to say _they're dead_, as if saying it out loud would make it truer.

John seemed to get the message, too, because there was a clatter and quiet, murmured voices—Rose, saying something like "John? Are you okay?" and the sound of fingers fumbling to pick up a dropped communicator before John's voice came again.

"You're—you're not saying—"

"I wish I wasn't!" Jade sobbed. "I'm sorry, I just needed to hear your voice, I couldn't—I—" she stopped speaking, not even sure what she wanted to say. "I love you, John, I love you so much."

"I love you too," he responded softly. "You're at the Striders' place? We'll... we'll be right over." He sounded almost numb. She guessed that it hadn't sunk in yet.

"Okay. I'll be here," she said quietly. "B—bye." There was a click, and she stared at the device in her trembling hands before she dropped it on the couch and buried her face in Dave's shoulder again, trying her utmost not to break down in hysterical sobs again.

"Hey," Bro's voice cut in, oddly gentle. "Jade. We need to get you out of those clothes, they smell like smoke and breathing that in is bad for you. Do you feel up to taking a bath?"

A bath would make her stop smelling smoke, at least. And she could cry into the water and wash away her tears so that she didn't have sooty, sticky smears all over herself. "Yeah, I can try," she nodded. The only downside was that to take a bath, she needed to stop clinging to Dave like a limpet, but as much as she didn't want to move she also felt disgusting and with every inhalation that she smelled smoke she saw the house all over again and—a bath would be a good idea. Shakily, she straightened and stood; Dave immediately did the same, wrapping one of his arms around her waist and walking with her.

She went to the bathroom, and suddenly was very glad that the four of them were close enough that they'd become so relaxed with leaving a few articles of clothing or personal belongings at each others' houses. There was a skirt and some underthings of hers that were just sitting in a cabinet labeled "Harley kids' shit", along with some of John's clothes and one action figure, but no shirt—she just borrowed one of Dave's instead, even though it would be comically large on her and the sleeves would definitely cover her fingers. But at least it didn't smell like smoke.

She cried while pouring warm water over herself and scrubbing furiously at the soot, and she cried when she just sat in the tub and tried to fill the sudden void in herself with the heat of the water. She finally wrapped herself in a large, fluffy towel, and regarded the girl in the mirror. She had black hair that was dripping and fell straight down her back, and reddened, puffy green eyes that filled with tears even as she watched them. Her face looked like she'd forgotten how to smile.

There was a gentle knock on the door. "Jade?" It was Rose's voice, hesitant, low and trembling. "May... may I come in?"

Jade opened the door in response, biting her lower lip. Rose stepped inside the bathroom, closing the door behind her, and wordlessly held out her arms; Jade clung to her and buried her face in her shoulder and willed herself not to cry. She just felt so hollow now...

Rose politely turned her back while Jade dressed, and then ever so tenderly brushed her long, lustrous hair. Nanna used to do that, Jade thought, and clung to Rose again.

When they got back downstairs, John was sobbing just like she had been earlier while Dave sat next to him, trying to comfort him. Jade all but ran to him and didn't let go for the rest of the night, and Rose joined them on John's other side and all four of them held each other as the pain flowed.

* * *

_Six_.

* * *

Over the next month, Jade and John stayed at Rose's house, and Dave came over from his apartment frequently—most of the time, he spent the night. None of them went to school the rest of the week of that incident, dreams of the future suddenly forgotten. Jade had nightmares about the burning house and the charred body far too often for her liking, waking up crying and crawling into John's bed. She felt overwhelmingly hollow, as if there was a hole in her heart that she just didn't know how to fill.

As time passed, it gradually began to heal, painfully slow. It still hurt to think about them, and everything that was lost in the fire, but she was starting to get used to a life without her beloved Nanna and Grampa.

"I'm going to go by John Egbert now instead of John Harley," her brother said one day, stoically dry-eyed only for a moment before his lip trembled. "It only seems right."

"You should," Jade agreed quietly, standing up and wrapping her arms around him. "That way both of our names remember both of them."

He nodded, resting his chin atop her head. "Jade... I miss them. I want them back."

"Me too," she said, thinking with a sharp pang of all the happy memories. "Me too."

They had five months left of school, and right now they couldn't have cared less. None of them were paying attention their grades anymore; the only textbooks that Jade would have cared about had turned to ash. Her Space powers were still simmering under the surface, but the books that Rose had managed to get for her were gone.

It wasn't until a little over a month had passed since that day when Rose came to her, the expression on her face already saying that something was very wrong.

"Jade," she said. "I just saw something that has me very, very worried."

"What was it?" Jade asked tiredly.

"That day... it was arson."

The floor might as well have dropped out from under Jade in that instant; she stumbled, and Rose only barely caught her before she collapsed. "_Arson_? Who killed them? Is that why no one helped?"

"Here, let's sit down," Rose said carefully as she guided the smaller girl to a couch and held her hand tightly. "It was arson, and the perpetrators were soldiers of the Empress, which is why no one helped. And it gets worse," she shook her head. "It's all my fault, I'm so so sorry, Jade, apparently they noticed that one of the textbooks from the warehouse was missing, and they tracked it because Space is so important to them, and then..."

Jade felt a dull roaring in her ears, shaking from rage and grief and shock.

"Jade?" Rose was saying. "Jade, please, are you alright? I'm sorry, I am so, so sorry," her voice broke and she fell silent. Jade hugged her.

"I don't blame you. You didn't know, you were just trying to help me. But... I _hate _the Empress, I hate her I hate her I hate her!" she cried.

Rose seemed to sag in relief before she hushed Jade, holding her tight and kissing the top of her head. "So do I."

It was only a week after that when at midnight, Dave showed up at the door, his eyes wide and his shirt smeared with blood and his cheeks stained with tears. With dawning horror, Jade recognized the look on his face as the same one she'd worn when she showed up at his door a month ago.

"No," she whispered, drawing him inside. Rose and John had fallen asleep, curled up together on the couch where they'd been trying to watch a movie without either of them breaking down; Jade pulled Dave into the house and into her and Rose's shared room, where she just flung her arms around him and held him close as he began to sob.

"Is it—is Bro okay?" she asked, dreading the answer—surely Bro Strider couldn't be hurt. The man wasn't going to be caught unawares like Nanna and Grampa had been; he was an amazing fighter!

"He's—he's dead," Dave choked out before he buried his face in her hair. Jade felt her world rock; someone ought to go and tell Mom Lalonde but she didn't have it in her to let go of her Dave, not now not like this.

"Oh, Dave," she breathed, rubbing his back soothingly and letting him cry. Crying was therapeutic, for a little while. When it got to be too long, she would shush him and make him hot chocolate like Nanna used to—she could do that now without more than a few tears—and wrap him in blankets and sing him a lullaby until he fell asleep in her arms, and _then _she would let herself cry, because he needed her to be strong right now.

How times had changed. Jade wanted to go back to the beginning of this year, when Nanna and Grampa and Bro were all alive and her biggest worries were her grades and whether Dave liked her back. Now, she didn't think she had a crush on Dave Strider anymore. After all they'd been through, she would probably say she was "in love with" her best friend, because this went deeper than just a flighty crush. But she didn't give a damn about romantic interests right now, because her best friend was hurt and grieving in her arms and she was damn well going to be there for him just like he had for her!

Minutes that turned into an hour and then two passed agonizingly as she held him and he desperately clung to her just like she had clung to him six weeks ago. He seemed mostly cried out after that, and even though it was two in the morning Jade kissed his cheek gently and led him to the kitchen, where she let him keep his arms wrapped around her as she made a pot of hot chocolate and poured it into a big mug that steamed invitingly in a way that reminded her of winter evenings spent huddled with Nanna and Grampa and John in a pile of blankets on a big couch as they watched movies that John and Grampa enjoyed way too much while she and Nanna laughed.

And then she gave the mug to Dave and they went back upstairs, and Jade draped a blanket around his shoulders and let him lean into her arms and drink the hot chocolate, after which she held him tight and sang a sweet lullaby until his eyes closed and his breathing evened, and she carefully pulled the other blankets up over them both and stroked his hair.

And then she let herself cry until there were no more tears left in her.

* * *

_Seven_.

* * *

Four months later, Mom Lalonde had taken all four kids under her wing. Everyone had helped Dave clean out his old apartment that he shared with Bro—Jade had gasped and hugged him tightly when she found a picture from last spring festival, when all of them were stargazing out of the city near a big lake in the countryside. In the picture, Nanna and Grampa were leaning against each other with arms loosely draped about each other, John was lying on his back next to them, and Bro was chatting with Rose's mom, while Jade lay with her head in Dave's lap. Rose had taken the photograph. It now hung in the girls' bedroom.

The story of how Bro had died was not heartening in the slightest. He'd been attacked by a troop of soldiers, and no matter how good a fighter he was, one man could not slay that many elite forces. Dave had found him lying in the street on his back, his own sword impaling him vertically. He'd been furious and hurt all the more, because it meant that whoever killed his brother had knocked him down and then struck the blow when he was completely helpless.

Rose was terrified for her mother, all three of them could tell. The Empress's rule was growing harsher, and it was getting harder and harder to make ends meet, what with three extra heads around the household. In addition, the seer's visions kept getting worse and worse, and it was obvious to those who knew her well that she was extremely afraid that the fact that the theft of both Space and Time books from the warehouse of the Academy might be traced back to her and her mother.

"Remember all the sleepovers we had in here?" Jade asked one day as they sat in their shared room, Rose knitting a sweater while Jade reclined against her side. "I miss those days."

"Me too," Rose said quietly, a hint of a smile emerging as she added, "It was kind of fun getting you to ramble on about which boy you liked."

"It was kind of fun getting you to _admit_ which one you like," Jade said with a little laugh. "By the way, I still like the same one. Just keeping you updated."

Rose did smile then, a true smile even if it was a little sad. "I'll be sure to remember that," she said. Jade smiled softly in return, examining her friend. Rose looked tired and gloomy, just like they all did these days, but at least there was some color in her face. Jade reached up and gently tucked a lock of golden hair behind her friend's ear; she'd become even more comfortable with Rose than she'd been before ever since they started living together. Rose might as well have been her sister now, and she told her that.

Rose was quiet for a moment. "Thank you," she said in a low voice that seemed to tremble just a little. "I... it means a great deal to me that you think so."

Jade hugged her. "You, Dave, John, me, and your mom, we're all family now," she said. "But just tell me this: Will I get to call you sister-in-law at some point?"

Rose choked and then began to laugh. Jade grinned proudly at her achievement.

A while later, while they all sat at the table to eat dinner, John looked up brightly. "So how did you both spend today?" he asked. "Me and Dave tried to study for that stupid final in math." He was making a conscious effort to be more like his old self, Jade noticed. Was she closer to herself too? At any rate, she'd noticed herself starting to laugh more often again.

"Look at you both, being productive!" she giggled. See, that had come more naturally, less forcedly! Maybe she was healing, too.

"We talked," Rose said smoothly, casting a mischievous look at Jade, who nodded in confirmation.

"What about?" John asked, walking right into whatever Rose was setting up. Oh no, suddenly Jade had a bad feeling about this—

"Whether Jade has feelings for a particular boy or not," Rose replied. "Which, by the way, she does."

Jade blushed scarlet. "_Rose!_"

"I'm not saying any names," the blonde said demurely. "Just that you do. Which is true."

"We are _not _bringing this up," Jade groaned. "There has got to be better topics for table talk than the fact that I may or not be in love with—_someone!_" she hastily corrected before saying any names, like Dave Strider.

"Whaaat?" John's eyes widened. "Who?"

Beside him, unnoticed by anyone other than Rose, Dave had stiffened a bit uncomfortably, and had the barest hint of a glower on his face.

"Shush!" Jade flapped her hand at her brother. "Nobody! I'm not saying! Why don't we talk about the fact that _Rose _has feelings for someone, too?"

"I never confirmed that," Rose said.

"You never denied it, either," Jade grinned victoriously. "And you almost confirmed it."

"Can I at least learn who _that _is?" John asked.

As one, Rose and Jade shook their heads. "Nope."

It felt good, really, really good, to be able to just gather around a table and laugh and be a bunch of teenaged friends again, not a motley family that was always drowning in the depths of grief. These days, days when she felt like herself, had become very rare, but were slowly making themselves more common again, and she loved it. It was just very nice to joke about romantic silliness without feeling so worried about the idea of losing anyone. She was most definitely still in love with Dave, but regardless of whether that would ever work out or not, she was just happy to be able to laugh again.

And if when the four of them gathered on the couch to watch a movie after dinner, Dave made sure to sit next to her and clasped his arms around her a bit more tightly than usual, well, Jade wasn't about to complain.

* * *

_Eight._

* * *

The world, however, didn't seem to like the idea of actually staying sane and happy, and instead finished the process of going utterly to hell only a few weeks before the end of their final year of school. It was a Friday night, their traditional movie night, and all four were gathered on the same couch watching another film that John insisted was really good. Jade laughed and told Dave, who she was leaning against, that he had never been able to convince either her or Nanna of this fact. He just snorted and replied that John had shitty taste in movies, and wrapped both of his arms around her waist as she snuggled against him.

Rose, exhausted from all the work she'd been doing earlier due to her ridiculous number of extra classes, fell asleep halfway through the movie, leaning against Jade with her legs across John. The dark-haired boy sighed wearily and looked over to see that Dave was also slowly but surely nodding off, while Jade looked over to her brother with a little grin.

"Why can none of you people appreciate good movies?" he asked, shaking his head disparagingly.

Jade laughed, leaning over Rose to ruffle his hair. "We _can_ appreciate good movies, John! You just have the special ability to appreciate bad ones, too!"

John was about to reply when there was a loud _boom_. Dave jerked awake immediately, and Rose stirred blearily. "What's going on?" she asked.

"It sounds like something just exploded," John said worriedly. "Should we go look? Someone might need help!"

Jade nodded, biting her lip anxiously. "We should at the least see what's going on!" she said.

"That is usually a good idea if things are fucking _exploding_," Dave agreed, standing and pulling Jade to her feet when she held out a hand.

Rose suddenly let out a gasp as a thought struck her and vaulted off the couch, all but flying from the room. Jade gasped and grabbed Dave's hand again, running after her.

"Rose, wait! It's safer if we stay together, we can find her—"

The hall was empty of either Lalonde. Outside, there was another deep _boom_; John jumped in surprise. "Was it... was it just me, or did that sound closer?"

Before either of them could reply, the kaboom came a third time, but it was accompanied by the visual from the windows of a great fiery plume rising into the sky. It _had _been an explosion; there was a bombing going on. The riots in the streets had finally gotten bad enough that the Empress had decided to bomb her own people! And the explosions were getting closer and closer to the Lalonde house.

The three of them stood in a stunned silence for several heartbeats until it was shattered by another explosion.

"We need to find Rose and Aunt Lalonde and get the fuck out of here, fast," Dave said in a low, urgent voice. "I don't like this."

"Wait!" Jade cried as they started to head to the door, tearing herself away and running up the stairs.

"Jade!" John called. "Where are you going?"

Jade didn't answer, speeding down the hallway into her and Rose's bedroom. If they had to leave, there were some things she refused to leave behind! She grabbed a bag and stuffed a couple of changes of clothes for both of them into it, some warm and some cold, plus the scarf and hat Rose had made her to replace the ones lost in the fire, their shared jewelry box, which contained several items of sentimental value, the little wallet behind the back of the drawer that contained all the money for an emergency, and finally the treasured picture from the wall.

Thinking fast, she also grabbed a blanket and then hit a conundrum. It was too big to fit in the bag, but if they weren't going to have a place to sleep for a while then a blanket was going to be a good idea. Maybe she could just—oh!

She focused on the bag and slowly shrank the contents, all of them, and trusted in her ability to resize them later as she added another blanket and some pillows. Now that she could do this, she could add more things, like a light, before she ran to the bathroom and got whatever supplies she deemed essential from there. Another explosion lit up the hallway as she ran to the kitchen, hoping that Dave and John had gotten the same idea and started packing essentials, and added several knives, cans of food, and a few canteens that she filled with water, all shrunk down to be able to fit in her bag. It was tiring her, but it was better than being unprepared.

But where were Rose and her mother? They couldn't leave without either of them! What was even going on outside? Were there still people in the streets from the protest she'd heard about earlier today, when someone was trying to change the ridiculously high price of bread? Was that who was being bombed?

"Jade!" It was Dave, running into the kitchen and seizing her arm. "Come on, we're leaving right now!"

"But Rose!" she cried in protest, trying to wrest herself away from his iron grip as he hauled her out the back door. "We can't leave Rose!"

"We have to get out of here! The next bomb will probably land on top of this house!" Dave replied tersely, not meeting her eyes. How could he leave Rose behind? She was his cousin and also all of their best friend and—_Rose Lalonde had to be alright!_

John met them outside, a bag of his own in hand—so the boys had gotten the idea, she noticed—and all three of them began to run down the street and turned away, heading to the outskirts of the city. It was dark and everything was aflame and smelled of smoke as people ran to and fro, screaming and crying and sometimes both, and Jade felt tears run down her cheeks as her eyes watered from both the smoke and from the memories, squeezing John's hand as tightly as she could.

They fled farther and farther away until the burning buildings were a red line in the distance, when Jade finally insisted that they stop and think before blindly running away. "Okay," she panted. "We have to go somewhere. But where in the city should we go?"

There was a silence. The only place left to them of their four residences was Dave's old apartment, which was probably not that safe anymore, to say nothing of how much it might hurt to visit.

"We have to leave the city," Rose's voice said suddenly as she dejectedly stepped out of the shadows, her face stained with tear trails in soot but her eyes determined.

"Rose!" John gasped and hugged her fiercely, quickly joined by Jade and Dave. There was a moment where the relief was so strong that none of them dare relinquish their grasp on each other, and then Rose stepped back slightly.

"We have to move, now," she said. "There isn't much time, and especially you both—" she nodded at Dave and Jade "—have to get out of here. She's doing some sort of crackdown on Space and Time, using other Space and Time mages who lean towards Seeing to find you all. It's not safe in there anymore."

"Rose," John interrupted softly, "where's your mom?"

Rose stiffened and fell silent for an awful moment. "She... she didn't make it out."

There was a horrified, shocked silence before the four of them moved as a unit into each other's arms again, just holding on like they would never let go.

"I'll be—I'll be fine," Rose said, a definite wobble in her voice now. "But we've got to run. Before I left my mom, she... she told me that they knew it was us who took those books and that's why they've been targeting first Jade's house, then your brother, Dave, and finally coming after us, the thieves who have been illegally allowing the training of Space and Time mages who aren't in her forces. All four of us are technically fugitives now, and we have to flee. My mom... she gave her life to buy us some time. We have to make use of it, please."

John nodded solemnly. The four of them linked hands, and together they fled the city that had once been their home.

* * *

_Nine_.

* * *

They had been on the run now for almost two years, never staying in one place for too long and relying on Rose's visions to let them know where was and wasn't safe most of the time. Right now, they were in a lovely forest, painted silver and white in the middle of winter. A light dusting of snow covered the ground and the branches and made the entire place glitter beautifully in the sun. Jade shivered as the wind wound through the clearing in which they'd set up camp, which had grown from a couple of blankets and cloaks to two tents—real, nice tents, too—and a little firepit in the center. Rose and John were in the nearby-ish town to restock their provisions, while Dave was still asleep in his tent, having taken the early morning shift that always left people feeling exhausted.

So here she was, making some hot chocolate for herself in Nanna's time-honored recipe. "I still miss you," she told the steaming mug that was held between her gloved hands. "And Grampa. I wish I'd been able to at least tell you how much I loved you before saying goodbye forever."

The wind blew again, and some snow fell from a branch onto her head and a little into her hot chocolate. Jade sighed and walked into the tent she shared with Rose, sitting down inside on one of the folding chairs they'd put there and draping a blanket over herself for good measure as she blew on the hot liquid. A few seconds passed in a quiet, reflective manner.

At least everyone was still together. Even though they'd lost Nanna, Grampa, Bro, and Mom Lalonde, the four of them were still all with each other, not separated or alone. And it wasn't like their new life was all awful—just last night, they'd had a snowball fight and rolled down a snowy hillside just for the fun of it, laughing all the while.

It had been fun, with all of them knowing that they were hours from any city that might be dangerous to see unprepared, and just allowing themselves to be a group of goofy friends again rather than constantly being on the run and being grim and serious. Rose had squarely nailed John in the back with an expertly aimed snowball, and he had fallen face-first into a snowdrift, leaving a John-shaped hole in the mound of freshly fallen snow. Jade had laughed until Rose tossed a snowball at her, too, and then it had become a full out war in the moonlight. Dave built a snow fort and he and Jade huddled together behind it, laughing as they threw snowballs at the opposite side.

And finally, they'd all come back, shivering, to the campsite, and had a nice hot dinner and gone to bed feeling more lighthearted than they had in weeks. Jade smiled happily in recollection when the tent flap opened and Dave let himself in.

"Hey," he said, his voice sounding a little funny, like he was about to cry or something. Maybe he just had caught a cold?

"Hi Dave!" she greeted with a little wave. "I didn't know you were awake, or I would have made you hot chocolate. Sorry! Do you want some of mine?"

"Nah, it's fine," he shook his head, and then just looked at her, like he was drinking in her presence.

"...Dave?" she asked after a second, looking at him with bemusement. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"God fucking dammit," he muttered, turning away and running a hand through his hair, as if he was stressed about something. "I shouldn't have come."

"Dave?" Now she was starting to get concerned. What was he talking about? And... now that she thought about it, he looked a little different than she would have thought—more tired, haggard, and worried, from what she could see. Weird...

"Fuck. Sorry, Harley, I just wanted to see you."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, frowning. "You're acting weird. Are you ... are you a future Dave?"

He gave her a tired, sad smile. "Yep, that's me, just popping back a couple of weeks."

"Why?"

Dave shrugged. "I felt like, I guess." He wasn't meeting her gaze, there was something he was hiding from her...

"Are you sure that's the only reason?" she asked, frowning slightly at him.

He sighed. "It's not. I wanted to see you, like I just said."

"Why couldn't you just see future me?"

Another shrug. "You were busy, doing something or other, and I was lonely. John was asleep, and Rose was doing her whole trancey thing."

Jade frowned at him as she finished her hot chocolate. There was something he was still not telling her here! It didn't make sense. Dave didn't time travel frivolously, just because he was bored or lonely. "You're hiding something from me," she accused.

"Oh fuck this shit," he muttered, and the next thing she knew he'd scooped her up, blanket and all, into a crushing hug. "I really did want to see you, you know," he murmured into her ear.

Here was the Dave she knew, but something was still wrong, she thought as she hugged him back, for some reason feeling a strange melancholy. "Why couldn't you see future me, Dave?" she asked with trepidation, because he was holding onto her like he had the night two years ago when his brother had died and that was a terrifying feeling.

He took a deep, shaky breath. "Because... fuck, I shouldn't be telling you this, but I think you already knew... they captured you. Two weeks ago, from my perspective, and we still have no leads on where you are. And I missed—I miss you. A lot."

Jade felt herself going stiff with fear. They captured her? Soon? Oh no, she wasn't ready for this, she couldn't do it—

"Jade?" Dave asked worriedly. "Oh shit, Jade please don't cry!" He hugged her even more tightly and buried his face in her hair.

"You—you shouldn't cry either, Dave," she said in a tremulous voice as she held him, disbelief still coursing through her. "They really took me?" Her voice wavered.

"I wish I was lying," he replied, voice slightly muffled. "I really fucking wish I was lying."

"I'm scared," she said, pressing herself into his arms. "I'm scared, Dave, really scared."

"I'm sorry," he responded. "I don't know what to do, because it has to happen now. Fuck, I shouldn't have come..."

"Oh, no, Dave, no, don't tell yourself that! It's not your fault," she immediately reached up to stroke his hair comfortingly. "It already happened, right? You can't change it from happening, I know that, so please don't blame yourself. And maybe... maybe it's good that you told me now! Because this way I can at least come to terms with it more easily than if it just happened. I'm still scared, but at least I know it's coming."

Dave was shaking slightly, she could feel him shivering. "Dammit," he muttered, and suddenly he pulled back enough to hold her gaze, his face solemn. "You're right. I just wish I could—Jade, I _promise_ you that I will find you and save you," he said seriously. "I will not let them keep you. I will find you, I swear."

Outside the tent, a crow cawed loudly. Dave cursed under his breath. "I have to go, I remember that that fucking bird was what woke me up, and I walked in here right after that. And I also remember you looked upset and you didn't tell me why, just hugged me. I guess I know now."

"I love you," Jade interjected, hugging him close. "I just want you to know that."

"I love you too," he replied, resting his cheek against her temple for a moment. "Also... I've been wanting to do this for a fucking long time, but never could get myself to work up the courage. But now that ... well, I just want you to know," and then he pulled away just enough to kiss her, gentle and loving and soft and all too fast before he pulled back.

Jade looked up at him with wide eyes before she flung her arms around him again. "Dave," she murmured, a definite sob in her voice, "I love you, I love you so much and I don't want you to go—"

"Hey, I'll be walking in this tent again in just a second, don't cry," he said tenderly, stroking her hair for a moment before he withdrew, slowly, as if it took all the effort in the world to let go of her as he regarded her in a way that told her he was just trying to drink in every aspect of her presence until he left. "See you—see you soon, Jade. I'm going to bring you home. I promise."

He vanished, and Jade stared after him for a long moment before she sank back into her chair, trembling. When Dave walked into the tent, he stopped abruptly and frowned at the sight of her, curled into a ball and shaking almost tearfully.

"Jade? Something wrong?" he asked, bewildered, as he approached and tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder.

That was when she hugged him and clung to him and didn't let go.

* * *

_Ten._

* * *

It was dark.

It was dark and frightening and chilly and damp and Jade hated this cell where they let her "rest" between forcing her beyond her limits and making her faint from exhaustion only to be punished for not being able to teleport so many objects at once. She ached all over, and from within, because her magic did not work like this but they were _forcing _it to and it hurt and she just wanted to go home, and it was amazing that she hadn't snapped yet!

_I'm going to bring you home. I promise._

Dave was going to save her, wasn't he? Dave, and Rose, and John, her beloved brother and the girl who may as well be her sister and the boy who she was in love with, they were going to come for her. It was the hope that she clung to, here in the darkness and emptiness when she was left alone with her fears and herself.

It was so very dark.

Above her were a good several meters of solid stone. There was no way out that way. Below her was just more earth and rock. This cell was underground, deep underground, and it terrified her. There was nothing moving, nothing stirring, just the darkness and her own mind to fill the void that was left by the lack of light. The only furniture in here, if it could even be called that, was a cot, shoved in the back corner next to the rough walls. Jade lay on that cot, curled in on herself, and cried.

_Bring me home, bring me home, bring me home! You promised!_

They'd allowed her to see sunlight today, just for a little while, as a "reward" for no escape attempts in the past week. Now, they made sure to work her even harder and make her even more tired, make her hurt even more, before leaving her to rest like this; most days she fainted and woke up and was pushed to fainting again before they discarded her in here like a broken doll. She'd stood in the courtyard, surrounded by guards and with shackles on her hands, and wept because the wind on her face reminded her of John.

It was too dark.

Tomorrow, too, she had nothing to look forward to, just more of the same torment. There was _something_ they did to her that hurt her so, so much that most days she screamed herself hoarse and blacked out from the pain, and woke up feeling as if she had been torn apart and sown together again with a big, vicious blunt yarn needle with fire on the tip, but on the _inside_ too, not just her body but her magic, the one part of her that had always been removed from whatever happened outside. They were getting to her mind, too.

_Dave, John, Rose, please! Bring me home, bring me home, please, I can't do this!_

With a painful sense of yearning she thought of the outside world, not for the first time and certainly not for the last. How long had she been in this place? She was losing track of the days, her spirit starting to waver—no, not starting, it had been wavering for a while ever since her last escape attempt. She'd tried to teleport away from the compound, wishing that she could teleport herself to her friends and just close her eyes and open them to find herself in Dave's arms, but she knew that she couldn't because thanks to that device they'd been making her teleport in front of they always knew where she jumped to. Jade just wanted to get out of here, that was it. Was it so much to ask that she be released from this place? If she lived, she could find Rose and John and Dave, but... if they killed her, at least she could maybe be with Nanna and Grampa again.

It was too dark, too still, too dark.

Another tear dripped from her chin onto the rough stone floor as she hugged her knees to her chest, whimpering. This was horrible and she hated everything here, she just wanted to get out but with every passing hour that just brought more pain, that glimmer of hope that was John, Rose, and Dave grew fainter and fainter. Jade was terrified that soon she would lose sight of it at all, but at the same time part of her said that that would be a good thing, that as soon as she lost hope and gave in, she could stop hurting so much because she wouldn't have a reason to fight the cold clutches of death that she could feel tugging at her consciousness every time they subjected her to those awful waves of excruciation. If she just let them go, she could let herself go too, and then she wouldn't hurt anymore.

_Please, please, please... Dave... you promised me... you promised..._

One day soon, please please _please_ come rescue her, she couldn't handle this much longer! She had to cling to their light, because her own had been extinguished by the stifling darkness. Dave, her knight in shining armor from their childhood games, he had promised he would come for her, he would bring her home. She had to hold on to that memory, she had to hold on to their memory, to the recollection of how warm he was when he held her or the feel of his arms around her when he had kissed her, to the way Rose laughed and plaited her hair into elegant braids, to the way John swept her up into the sky with a smile that could outshine the sun. She had to hold on to them, because they were the only reason she had to hold on at all.

Or maybe it would just be easier to die than to pine away forever on a fool's hope and a dream that was lost long ago.

* * *

_Eleven._

* * *

Jade found herself slowly regaining consciousness just as they were half-carrying, half-dragging her limp body to the cell. She must have fainted again, too exhausted in mind, body, and magic to remain awake, and apparently she'd been out long enough that they were going to toss her back into her prison early. Was that a blessing or a curse? She wasn't really sure, and she wasn't really sure if she cared anymore, either.

"Well, well, the little uncooperative bitch is awake," one of the two guards painfully lugging her across the floor observed. "Get up and walk."

"I can't," Jade moaned, because it was true, her head was killing her and her legs felt even less substantial than jelly and the room was spinning.

In retrospect, she should have expected the slap across her face by then, but in her tired state it still came as a shock, snapping her head to the side with the force of the blow. She cried out in pain, and for some reason the guards dropped her. She fell to the floor, just like a broken, limp doll, and just lay there—if they expected her to walk, they were going to have to come up with something else, because she physically could not bring herself to. In the back of her mind, she vaguely registered the sound of an angry yell and a short, quick scuffle, but she paid that no heed. Would it be so much trouble if she just lay here on the cool, rough stone and didn't get up, not ever? She could just close her eyes and go to sleep...

"Jade! Fuck, Jade, open your eyes," a familiar voice was begging, pleading as someone shook her, though their movements were surprisingly gentle. That was enough to make her open her eyes, confused and bleary, to see...

"Dave?" she whispered, barely able to comprehend what was going on. "Dave, you shouldn't be here..."

"Yeah, and neither should you," her knight in shining armor replied, gently lifting her into his arms as he knelt on the ground next to her. "C'mere. I'm bringing you home."

"Home," she breathed, daring to hope for the first time in days as she clutched at his shoulders. "Really?"

His answer was a gentle nod before he hugged her close and kissed her temple. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm getting you out of here, Jade."

She almost began to cry, there in the dim underground hallway, but she was too tired. "I love you," she said instead, and with effort she raised her arm to stroke his cheek.

"I love you," he murmured, kissing her forehead before he stood, cradling her against his chest. "Just take it easy. I've got you, it'll be okay now. Just stay with me, alright?"

The next few minutes were a blur of movement that she was honestly too tired to keep up with. The dark hallways and dim rooms that she had become accustomed to whirled by as Dave carried her away, bringing her home, running past the bodies of soldiers that he must have incapacitated on his way down to where he found her, and finally they emerged into the courtyard which was full of more soldiers that were being battered and flung around by the wind, wind, so much wind! John must have been here, too, she realized, raising her head from Dave's shoulder to look for him.

"John!" Dave yelled over the howling of the gales, holding her more tightly so that the air didn't rip her from his grasp. "Let's go, let's go!"

A path through the gusts of wind seemed to clear in front of them, revealing John standing at the center of the storm and directing it all. Jade gasped at the sight of him. "Come on!" he called, beckoning with one hand before he returned to conducting the grand symphony of air. Dave ran forward as the rest of the world seemed to slow down, and then suddenly it returned to normal speed just for a second before slowing down again, but now John was at normal speed and so was Dave and so was she. It took her a moment to realize that Dave was manipulating the flow of time so that the three of them moved much faster than the soldiers trying to apprehend them and throw her back down into the dark—no, she was going home, she was going home!

They shot into the sky and flew higher, higher, and higher; Jade clung to Dave weakly and tried not to look down. Finally, after almost an hour flying while the world drifted by in that strange slow state, they began to descend into a campsite, just like the ones she remembered as being home. Time seemed to return to normal as their feet touched the ground, and Rose, who had been sitting cross-legged by the fire, leapt up and ran to them.

"Jade," she said breathlessly, even as John tiredly let go of his tight rein on the wind and turned to his sister also, and Dave was still holding her and she was _home, she was home she was free she was home_.

A tremulous smile slowly spread across Jade's face as she waved slightly with one hand before settling back into Dave's arms, feeling contentment slowly spreading through her like warm golden honey. "Hi," she said simply, blinking back tears of pure joy. "I missed you."

"Jade," John smiled back, and then he hugged her tight. "Oh, Jade..."

The three of them all held her, then, and Jade did cry, despite her exhaustion. She was home now, well and truly, and she had missed them so, so much, and she was just so, so happy now that everything would be okay again. John hushed her tears ineffectively but made her laugh while trying to do so, and when she fell asleep in their arms not too long afterward, it was the first time in a long while that she slept soundly at all.

* * *

_Twelve._

* * *

When she woke the next morning, just before dawn, out of what had become a forced habit, she was almost certain that she was dreaming, that she wasn't really lying between John and Rose with both of their arms thrown over her as they slept. This had to be a dream, there was no way yesterday could have been reality, and soon she would wake up in her dark cell and cry herself back to sleep—

"Jade?" John murmured sleepily, lazily opening his eyes to look at her. "G'mornin..."

"Good morning," she replied, burying her face in his chest. If this was a dream, she was going to enjoy it while it lasted!

Her brother seemed a little surprised, but he happily held her close and tugged the blanket over them a little higher, so that it was snugly under her chin. Jade smiled slightly and hugged him. She had missed this so much that it almost hurt in a good way to be back, like a reminder of just how much her family meant to her. John seemed to be half-asleep, and rapidly returning to the land of slumber; for a little while, she just observed him, unable to fall asleep herself but feeling quite content to lie there. When he was sleeping, the worry creasing his brow seemed to melt away and he looked much more like he had two years ago, before they'd had to flee after the deaths of the rest of their families.

Shifting in John's arms, she rolled over so that she could see Rose, to reassure herself that the other girl who was like the sister she'd never had was really there. She, too, was still asleep, her blonde hair fanned out on the pillow like a pale golden halo. Her face wore a serene expression, one that was rarely seen on her since the night her mother had died. Jade reached over and squeezed her hand, feeling more joyful than she could put into words, and then gently extricated herself from their arms to go find Dave, too.

As expected, he was on watch, leaning against a tree with his back to the campsite as he surveyed the slope leading down from the hilltop clearing in which they were residing. He was probably exhausted, too, considering that yesterday's events were actually real, they were real and she was home. Jade quietly walked over behind him, sliding her arms around his waist and resting her cheek against his shoulder. He jumped, startled, as one hand reflexively flew to the hilt of his sword, but immediately he relaxed again as common sense kicked in and he turned his head slightly to smile at her.

"Hey, Jade," he said, his voice warm. "What're you doing up this early? Other than scaring the shit out of me, I mean."

"Couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd give you some company," she replied softly, almost giggling at his teasing. Dave turned around in her arms so that he could clasp his about her as well, pulling her back with him so that she could lean into him as he let himself rest against the tree trunk, still watching the vale over her shoulder.

"Your company would be much appreciated," he said. "How are you?"

Jade smiled a bit tremulously, not quite meeting his gaze. "Much better than I would be otherwise. Thank you, for... for yesterday."

"Hey, now. Striders don't break promises," he cupped her cheek with one hand, tilting her chin up so that she would look at him in the growing light of the dawn. "Especially not to people they love."

Slowly, she brought her green eyes up to meet his ruby-red ones, watching the play of the sun's early rays against his fair skin and pale hair and the soft intensity of the way he was looking at her, holding her close and so very still. "I know," she said quietly. "And I love you, so, so much, Dave."

Moments like this were moments that Jade treasured dearly, kept in a little memory chest locked close to her heart. The quiet, gentle but striking moments when there was nothing but joy to be shared, even though there was sorrow under it. Those moments when the joy sang a sweet, sad melody that she could hear over the song of her own suffering and grief, and the pain of everyone else, those were the moments that she wanted to remember forever. As a slight breeze began to blow, tousling her hair and picking up Dave's messy locks, she reached up and gently, lightly touched his cheek, trying to absorb every last detail of this morning that she could. If this was a dream, she didn't ever want to wake up, not ever.

"I love you just as much," he replied with that same quiet intensity, though now there was a small, soft smile on his face too. "And I hope you know that there isn't a damn thing in the world I wouldn't do for you, if you needed me to."

"You are my knight in shining armor, aren't you?" she said with a little laugh, feeling that same feeling of contentment and joy that had been running through her langorously since last night rising and swelling within herself, and she wrapped her arms around him with a happy sigh for a long moment before she pulled back to meet his eyes, a real and true smile on her face now.

"Yeah, that's me," he said with a slight grin, leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead. Jade felt her breath catch in her throat as she looked up at him, just watching him and thinking how lucky she was to have him by her side.

"Dave," she said, and he raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her, shifting his arms around her so that her tired body could lean into him. Jade found herself smiling even more broadly now as she slid her hands up to his shoulders. When she kissed him, she could tell he was smiling too, and as he held her in the light of the new day, it felt _right_, like the start of something new, the start of something as beautiful as the dawn.

* * *

_Finis._

* * *

_AN: Uh... wow, this one sort of just kept coming. I'm pretty pleased with it, though! I really hope you liked it, Snowy. I know you said you didn't want anything too heartbreaking and I think I broke myself like five times while writing, but I did my best to make it end on a happier note. Anyway, here's the otp being kind of cute and kind of heartbreaking, I hope you enjoyed! :)_

_Comments are very appreciated and will be rewarded with virtual cookies._


End file.
